News, notes, and anecdotes on the Fort Wayne TinCaps

Cooking With Gasoline

Happy Friday!

I spent most of my day today trying to figure out how to get updated stats from one computer in the press box to another, so they can be relayed onto graphics our TV broadcast. We’ve had some breakthroughs. I expect Allan Wertheimer to be paying for several of my lunches over the course of this summer if this ends up working.

On the bowling front, I’m proud to announce that my team has secured a spot in the championship round of the TinCaps Bowling League playoffs after a dramatic comeback victory over the Powder Monkeys. It was a completely historic accomplishment… After we lost the first game, we won Game 2, then Kacie Whitmore rolled four strikes in a row (commonly referred to as a hambone) to start the third game and we never looked back. It was unbelievable. Arguably one of the Top 5 greatest comebacks in bowling history, right there with Roy Munson’s return to the bowling world in “Kingpin,” or at least up until the point he loses to Big Ern McCracken.

Before bowling the other night, I caught some of the Pirates-Orioles game and they had Pittsburgh GM Neal Huntington in the booth. He said, and I paraphrase, “March and September are the two absolute worst times to evaluate players.” Which, by extension, means those are probably also the worst times to evaluate teams. Translation: Spring Training stats and records mean nothing. That being said, there are definitely jobs up for grabs, but it’s the more minor decisions (which veteran will get the final bullpen spot) than big ones (will this prospect make the MLB roster). The more I hear about the whole “prospect trying to make the big-league roster” situation, the more it seems like there are only two ways the prospects will start the season in the major leagues:

1. An injury to the MLB starter (i.e. the prospect is a third baseman and the MLB third baseman gets hurt), or2. The prospect goes completely ballistic in Spring Training and leaves the team no other choice.

Friday ramblings:

James Darnell got the start at third base today for the Padres. He was on our 2009 Opening Day roster.

Jeff Samardzija’s line vs. the Brewers today: 2IP 5H 4ER 1BB 2K. He gave up two home runs. Of the six outs he induced, two were strikeouts and the rest were flyouts. Sounds like the ball was up. He throws hard, has a pretty good breaking ball and the Cubs are letting him throw his split-finger fastball again, which they didn’t in his first two pro seasons. Don’t give up on him yet, Cubs fans.

Matt LaPorta is “that guy” in the clubhouse. Somebody was telling him they were getting their car shipped to Arizona. He asked, “In a box?”

ESPN.com’s Keith Law got a look at some Padres prospects who haven’t played above Class-A yet… RHPs Adys Portillo and Rafeal Arias and INFs Edinson Rincon, Jeudy Valdez and Jonathan Galvez. You have to be an ESPN Insider to read, but to paraphrase, Law seems to like Rincon. He wrote things like “he can hit” and that Rincon makes “loud contact with good backspin” in batting practice. Also, he warned not to write off Valdez (who played here in 2009)… The ball comes off his bat well, which I agree with. I thought he got pull-happy last year, which pitchers quickly adjusted to. He’s only 20 years old.

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